Fred Harvey Menu

Remember the Harvey Girls with Judy Garland? This is the restaurant that inspired the movie. It is a menu design for Fred Harvey restaurants that were once a famous chain of eateries that served railroad depots. This one is from El Tovar Hotel in Grand Canyon, Arizona. The menu is titled 300 miles of hospitality and it’s an illustrated map depicting their locations. It’s filled with awesome illustrations in 4 colors, my favorite is the cow. Nothing beats the quality of offset solid spot colors, this thing is vibrant. The inside is not that exciting. I’ve had this for a while and this was probably the post that should have followed my last about five years ago. There’s a 4-64 number on the corner and considering the restaurant was open from 1939 – 1967, I’d say it’s circa 1964. Here’s a link from the Los Angeles Conservancy with a bit on the restaurant’s history if you’d like to read about it.

La Fonda Del Sol Menu

I thought I would start with something classic and what a better way to do it than with the great master and acclaimed designer Alexander Girard. This is a Dinner Menu Design for La Fonda del Sol Restaurant in New York circa 1960. It is an offset lithograph with wonderful vibrant colors. I can almost say the work done for this restaurant (specially the suns) are one of his most celebrated and recognized designs. This menu has also been featured in many museums such as the SFMOMA. So here are some closeups of the type and full shots of the menu. Enjoy!

It’s Back

After a long hiatus (and pressure from a few of you), I’ve decided to take another stab at picking this up where I left it. There’s still some cool stuff to share and hopefully someone will dig it. So come back and check hopefully every week or so for new posts. Peace!

My Jim Flora Collection

As you might already know, I’m a Jim Flora freak. I’ve been collection his records for many years and every time I come across one I just can not pass on it. As a result, my collection is outgrowing and I’m finding myself having to sell all my duplicates. I will be listing them at my vintage store modfortis.etsy.com. Come and check them out. I’m up for trades if you think you got something I might be interested in. Here are a few already listed:

Continue reading “My Jim Flora Collection”

Animal Logos Part 2

Here are more fun animal logos scanned from various sources. More to come. Make sure you also check out part 1 Enjoy!

Robby Desilva for Mafrel Ready-made Men’s wear 1980 Bombay


Szekeres István for Lovasiskola 1982 Budapest


Eduardo A Canovas for Pampere Infantil 1986 Buenos Aires

Milan Rakic for RO za izradu rashladnih uredaja 1978 Beograd

Medix / Shogo Kumasaka for Tsunoi Denki 1987 Tokyo

Takashi Ishida for Shiki no Kai 1986 Japan

Motoo Nakanishi / Yutaka Sono (art Dir) Susumu Harada (designer) for Daie 1982 Tokyo

Toshio Fukano for Friendly 1986 Japan

Household Gloves Fuller Packaging

Here’s a fun packaging for household gloves made by Fuller Brush Co. It has some fun illustrations of ladies cleaning the house which of course wouldn’t fly with today’s standards but hey the illustrations are nice. The flowers, the glove and the type made me pick up this example of Mid Century Packaging geared towards the fine women of that era. There is no date but I’d say this is from the 1950’s. Enjoy!

Design: Unknown  |  Year: 1950?  |  Photo: Javier Garcia